Royals rediscover offense in victory over the Rays

After 45 innings of no scoring, the Royals finally rediscovered how to score — and they did time again and again — in a 6-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays. The loss knocked the Rays back to 3 1-2 games behind the second wild-card spot in the American League.

The Rays had closed to within 3-2, but Eric Hosmer's three-run homer off Dan Jennings in the bottom of the seventh settled things.

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Cobb had a quality start, but homers did him in./CARMEN MANDATO

Tampa Bay had only five hits in the loss against young pitcher Jake Junis and his bullpen. Brad Miller had a homer, and Logan Morrison had a run-scoring single, but there was little other damage. The Rays didn't have a hit until the fifth.

“Not having a ton of history (with Junis) kept us off balance,” manager Kevin Cash said. “We weren't recognizing the pitch. He chased out of the zone a little bit.”

Jennings gave up a big home run at the end./CARMEN MANDATO

Cash said that Jennings is in a slump.

“DJ is in a bit or a rut now,” Cash said. “The home run has gotten him twice here lately. That's unfortunate. I have confidence he'll get over it. He's a big-leaguer. He'll get over it. We all have taken lumps playing this game. Sometimes, it comes in bunches.”

Rays starter Alex Cobb saw his record evened at 9-9. In particular, he was upset to give up a home run to Jorge Bonifacio on a hanging curve ball in the sixth.

“I don't think the performances we need are to keep the team in the ballgame,” Cobb said. “We need to do all we can to win the ballgame. That one hanger is hard to swallow. I hung a curveball. It was a bad pitch. It's what he was looking for. He had a

Morrison had a run-scoring hit./CARMEN MANDATO

little extra time to get the barrel to it.

The streak ... the whole thing is pretty mind-blowing. That's a team that has really good offense.”

The Rays and Royals play the rubber game of their series tonight at 8:15 p.m. Jake Odorizzi pitches for the Rays against 14-game winner Jason Vargas.

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